Abraham Lincoln loved to tell stories. But many of them, as one political acquaintance tactfully admitted, “would not do exactly for the drawing room.” Lincoln had been raised in what he once called “the back side of this world,” and he had learned many a tale of how backsides worked. One of . . . . Continue Reading »
Glenn Ellmers joins the podcast to discuss his new book, The Soul of Politics: Harry V. Jaffa and the Fight for America. Continue Reading »
If a candidate claims to be pro-life and seeks the votes of pro-lifers, his or her mandate should be clear: Be bold for life. Continue Reading »
Everyone on that hot, dusty August afternoon in 1858 in the square at Ottawa, Illinois, knew who one of the men on the platform was. That man was Stephen Arnold Douglas, the senior U.S. senator from Illinois whose seat was up for re-election that year. Although Douglas stood only . . . . Continue Reading »
Artifacts and images of the Civil War touch something deep in the American soul. Continue Reading »
If Only…A Love Story is a new play by Thomas Klingenstein, now playing at the Cherry Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village. Continue Reading »
In recent decades, Abraham Lincoln’s reputation has not fared particularly well in the black community. Ebony magazine editor Lerone Bennett, Jr., famously argued that Lincoln was a proslavery white supremacist, while Julius Lester wrote that African Americans “have no reason to feel grateful to Abraham Lincoln. Rather, they should be angry at him.”
DEFENDING ORTHODOXYMykhailo Cherenkov’s pain and anger are deeply personal (“Orthodox Terrorism,” May). Anti-Ukrainian separatists have occupied the Baptist university that he used to head in Donetsk. They have also taken over forty Protestant churches in eastern Ukraine and have killed or . . . . Continue Reading »
The single most important event of constitutional interpretation in American history was the Civil War. The war was, of course, so much more than simply an act of constitutional interpretation. Fought from 1861 to 1865, it was the most devastating war in America’s history, resulting in the deaths . . . . Continue Reading »
After the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education ordering the desegregation of public schools in Topeka, Kansas, lawsuits promptly were brought to dismantle legally sanctioned segregation in other states. One of these was Arkansas. There, Governor Orville Faubus and . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
